Re: Paying for PayDirt....Its time to get a fair deal

Felix is the way to go. If I don't have time to be out in the field then I call Felix.
I will go ahead and tell you NOT to go to JandJgoldprospecting, they will straight up steal your money, by this I mean either they will send you a broken item or nothing at all. Good luck trying to call them they never answer their phone, let alone return a call. Leave all the messages you want, they will never call you back. They don't return emails either. They have a 3 day return policy on ebay which means if they DO actually call or email you back, they will wait until the 3 day period is over, but that's like a 1 in a billion chance that they will return your call. If you check them out on Ebay, look at their feedback. Ridiculous. I had to open a case against them. And I will be turning them into the Better Business Bureau this week. I have never had this much trouble dealing with a business although Kelly Co. was pretty close. I suggest doing a little bit of research before spending money and avoid these two companies. Check out my post on Kelly Co. falsely advertising products. If they deny it, I still have the recorded conversations of them telling me that no one would ever believe me. Ha! That's why I recorded the conversions. No one has to believe me I have them saying it on tape. But trust me when I say don't deal with Kelly Co. or JandJgoldprospecting.

Re: Paying for PayDirt....Its time to get a fair deal

I would like to throw in... enough to "rattle the cage". First, no need to heat the gold, simply pan down to "almost" dry and put on a plate to dry in the sun. Or soft heat from a hair drier.... don't blow it out of the plate! Second, skip the magnet part. No need. If your wheel is "set right" you will get very little, if any, black sands in the cup. If you feel you MUST use a magnet, be sure it is in a baggie so that the magnetite sticks to the bag instead of the mag... MUCH easier to remove. My Gold Miner wheel pitch is at 52 degrees. Which one suggests 45? If the wheel is set right, the specific gravity of gold is what separates it from the other stuff. Watching and using a wheel (always wet cons) is a wonder to behold! A wheel is only as good as the operator. It is, in fact, just a form of panning. A pan still works better. Sorry, Afreakofnature, but a 20 mesh will work better than the magnet. Last, I am not trying to "redden" your face but much of your post is not required and is, in fact, making the process more tedious. Comments? If you wish to "lambast" my post, please do so by personal message.... I can take a hit and get back up. TTC

Have been thinking or ordering some pay dirt. When you consider your time and today's gas cost it makes more sence. Especially if you are disabled and unable to drive. Either way you pay or money to see a little color in your pan!

The first poster said he felt he should get more gold since he was doing some of the work...vs buying clean gold. This is wrong since all these guys take clean gold and add it to their material so they KNOW you are getting decent gold. Some of them, like those listed above, are sending you material they went out and dug, screened, concentrated/salted, packaged, marketed and mailed to you. All of those steps cost money and time. It is only fair to expect us customers to pay for the convenience of play/pay dirt arriving at our doorstep!

The best way to get great panning gold, and to maximize your panning experience is to order the size of placer gold you want to pan (perhaps a variety of flakes, pickers, and a select nugget or two), pay for exactly the gold you want in your order--then, get some gravelly dirt and mix your own!

That way you'll never get less than what you expect. In fact, you'll get exactly what you expect. So, there's no surprise right? Exactly, but you won't get a bad surprise when you've paid for shipping, handling, and you get a measly grain (g-r-a-i-n) of gold instead of a gram or more.

If you read the fine print carefully on the panning dirt suppliers that are forthcoming enough to include it on their ads, you will notice that they guarantee a minimum amount of gold. They do that for a reason--so you can't complain that you didn't get some unexpected bonanza in your dirt. A lot of suppliers sell you on the "sizzle" that you "might" get an unexpected bonanza of gold. Unrealistic hoo-hah--an old fishing tactic to get you to bite.

The reality is if they did that on any kind of a regular business--they'd go broke in a big hurry.

So, if you want to buy pre-mixed panning dirt, get a statement on the minimum amount of gold they guarantee and don't be surprised if you don't get a micro-grain more!!

Buy your own placer flake, picker, nugget gold--mix it with gravel and enjoy exactly what you've paid for. You wouldn't order a car off the Internet with the "chance" that there'd be an engine in it, or a computer with a chance that there'd be a harddrive in it. No way. You want to get what you've paid for--not gamble that you might get what you want.

Do the same with panning dirt--buy the gold and mix your own--satisfaction 100% guaranteed! (Nothing romantic, or pie in the sky bonanza about it, but it's reliable each and every time.)

The best way to get great panning gold, and to maximize your panning experience is to order the size of placer gold you want to pan (perhaps a variety of flakes, pickers, and a select nugget or two), pay for exactly the gold you want in your order--then, get some gravelly dirt and mix your own!

That way you'll never get less than what you expect. In fact, you'll get exactly what you expect. So, there's no surprise right? Exactly, but you won't get a bad surprise when you've paid for shipping, handling, and you get a measly grain (g-r-a-i-n) of gold instead of a gram or more.

If you read the fine print carefully on the panning dirt suppliers that are forthcoming enough to include it on their ads, you will notice that they guarantee a minimum amount of gold. They do that for a reason--so you can't complain that you didn't get some unexpected bonanza in your dirt. A lot of suppliers sell you on the "sizzle" that you "might" get an unexpected bonanza of gold. Unrealistic hoo-hah--an old fishing tactic to get you to bite.

The reality is if they did that on any kind of a regular business--they'd go broke in a big hurry.

So, if you want to buy pre-mixed panning dirt, get a statement on the minimum amount of gold they guarantee and don't be surprised if you don't get a micro-grain more!!

Buy your own placer flake, picker, nugget gold--mix it with gravel and enjoy exactly what you've paid for. You wouldn't order a car off the Internet with the "chance" that there'd be an engine in it, or a computer with a chance that there'd be a harddrive in it. No way. You want to get what you've paid for--not gamble that you might get what you want.

Do the same with panning dirt--buy the gold and mix your own--satisfaction 100% guaranteed! (Nothing romantic, or pie in the sky bonanza about it, but it's reliable each and every time.)

Felix is the way to go. If I don't have time to be out in the field then I call Felix.
I will go ahead and tell you NOT to go to JandJgoldprospecting, they will straight up steal your money, by this I mean either they will send you a broken item or nothing at all. Good luck trying to call them they never answer their phone, let alone return a call. Leave all the messages you want, they will never call you back. They don't return emails either. They have a 3 day return policy on ebay which means if they DO actually call or email you back, they will wait until the 3 day period is over, but that's like a 1 in a billion chance that they will return your call. If you check them out on Ebay, look at their feedback. Ridiculous. I had to open a case against them. And I will be turning them into the Better Business Bureau this week. I have never had this much trouble dealing with a business although Kelly Co. was pretty close. I suggest doing a little bit of research before spending money and avoid these two companies. Check out my post on Kelly Co. falsely advertising products. If they deny it, I still have the recorded conversations of them telling me that no one would ever believe me. Ha! That's why I recorded the conversions. No one has to believe me I have them saying it on tape. But trust me when I say don't deal with Kelly Co. or JandJgoldprospecting.

I've used JandJ several times and had zero problems with them. They answered my calls and emails right away. The products arrived in time and they even went out of their way to do some special requests for me. The paydirt I've used from them wasn't crazy rich, but it's advertised as untouched and unsalted. I feel like I got what was advertised and was satisfied with my purchases.

It also seems a bit odd that this is the only post made by this person. Not saying it's impossible for someone to have had a bad purchase with them, just thought I'd share my experiences with them.

Buying commercially prepared concentrates is absolutely the way to go. Believe me, you do not want to go out into the wilds and prospect for gold. While it may seem alluring, reality is quite an eye opener. It is nothing like what you see on TV, or in the movies. For the most part, it is back breaking work for less than fair pay. I have found Alaska Nome Gold to be the fairest in the market when it comes to money paid versus gold received. The other big companies have a very high overhead with their advertising. Usually the ones that complain about others prospecting "the easy way", have never done it the hard way.

Paydirt is only good for the novice panner. It's good practice and I would recommend buying some actual gold like doc does. He pays 90% of spot and then you can put it in your own dirt and learn to pan. But if your just hoping to get lucky on paydirt I wish you luck. This database type approach will shed some light on the who's who in the paydirt market. Good luck

Time for me to weigh in on the subject. When I first became interested in the idea of prospecting for gold, I truly had many of these same thoughts. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of paying the shipping cost for sending pounds of dirt across the country. It made more sense for me to order some sample gold and get my own dirt to use for panning practice and when needed to test out my sluice box contraptions and designs. By purchasing the gold alone, I knew what I was getting, no surprises and felt very protected from being ripped off. At the time I was living in South Carolina and traveling for work from western NC, down to southern GA. I was literally in the gold belt as well as the bible belt, so finding paydirt of my own to process was within the realm of possibility. However my health went sour and my lady and I were forced to relocate to the north east, Southbridge MA. where I have no idea if there has ever been gold found. If so it would probably be placer gold and very deep. ( dredge stuff) Like I said, my health has taken a hit and although I hope to recover towards Christmas, Going out prospecting isn't looking possible until spring ( if the good lord is willing and so kind).. Then I came across this thread and I thought, what a brilliant idea!!!! I could order some paydirt and play during my none DR visit days and still have some fun. ( It might even help to keep my spirits up). And not knowing exactly what I might find would add to the excitement for me. So I can't wait to see some results. Great idea!!!!!!

I just saw an episode of gold fever and Tom was talking about meeting someone at an outing who said that the all-purpose sand at local hardware stores in LA have gold because the sand comes from the base of the mountains there. So he bought 3 two dollar bags and ran them through a sluice during the show. There was actually gold in there. He said it was about 30 dollars of gold from 6 dollars of sand. I had visions of driving a uhaul truck to LA and loading up and hauling it back to Oklahoma. I could get gold and turn my back yard into a sand dune recreational area (for Tonka toys).

I tried selling my dredge cons on ebay but had no takers. What I was trying was this...I ran the dirt through my clean up sluice and recovered the gold. Then I would dry out the cons and remix them together -18,+20,-20,-30 and then would weight out the gold at 1.1 grams and remix with the cons. I was trying to sell at 100% of spot plus shipping of $6 but after 3 weeks I had no takers so I gave up. I guess people don't want a guaranteed thing, they would rather spend more money on chance. Granted I had no feed back on selling cons but have 100% positive no the less.

Can't remember what state it was but Home Depot had a run on their 1/2 ton bags of sand they sale. Seems someone was finding a good amount of gold. Before long HD had ran out of bags as the purchasers were not returning the bags that they had left a deposit on. Ok everyone go buy your sand at HD so my 17,000 shares of HD stock continues to climb, its a +$0.72 per share as of 7:44am.Keep buying the sand as my wallet is growing without digging.

Your paying a huge price buying paydirt, do the math. As Lanny mentioned go buy your gold and pepper your own dirt if you need the thrill of panning offseason. You will be further ahead and the outcome is the same. If this does not work for you have someone else do the peppering so you have no clue how much gold is in the paydirt.

Last edited by AzViper; Oct 30, 2013 at 09:52 AM.

“He who builds their own equipment has a better understanding of what works and what does not work”